Top-end engine rebuild

After years of searching for his dream boat, Drew Maglio explains how he fixed the V8 engine on his new to him Chaparral 2550 SX

- Drew Maglio

Upon selling Walden, a 1987 Ericson 38-200 sailing sloop, and moving from South Florida to Annapolis, Maryland, it was time for a new boat. Our previous two boats, a 30ft Sea Ray and the 38ft Walden, had sucked much of the joy out of boating due to the litany of repairs, maintenance, and necessary modernisations that I had to perform on them.

Nonetheless, after enjoying a few months' reprieve, I began looking at online classifieds all over the US Eastern seaboard for a particularly elusive model of boat that I'd always dreamed of owning but had never been able to locate and secure.

As a child growing up in South Florida, my father owned a 1989 Chaparral 2100 SX bowrider that he bought new at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show for $17,500 (£12,982). I loved that this sport boat featured classic and sleek 'go-fast' lines, while maintaining a functional and practical deck layout for the vintage. However, I didn't like its dated interior, carpeted plywood deck, or open bow design. Hence, my personal dream boat became its larger, closed-bow brother: the 2550 SX, which makes a fine coastal runabout (due to the additional safety that a closed bow affords) and overnighter. Unlike the 2100 SX, later models of the 2550 SX cuddy cabin featured a glassfibre floor liner, a heads, a small galley, and a spacious berth, perfect for sleeping two. Although I always desired to own one of these vintage sport boats, I could never find one... until now.

Patience is a virtue